Executives at the biggest U.S. mortgage lenders said they aren’t willing to commit to expanding lending until hearing more about Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Melvin L. Watt’s plan to ease rules that can force them to buy back soured debt.
“You really need to get all the details,” Steve Boland, the home-loans originations executive for Bank of America Corp., said in an interview at the Mortgage Bankers Association conference in Las Vegas where Watt spoke. Boland said “clarity and certainty” are a “necessity” for the industry.